Interpretive Articles
Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum
Winter Counts
History in Pictures: Father Buechel and the Lakota Winter Counts - by Linea Sundstrom
This document illustrates and explicates an unidentified St. Francis Mission winter count of which the museum has two copies, one muslin and one paper. First the document shows the pictographs from the two versions of the winter count in the Buechel Museum followed by the year-names from the Ring Bull and Walking on Sky winter counts. Each year name is also translated into English.
The Thin Elk/Steamboat Winer Count: A Study in Lakota Pictography - by Linea Sundstrom
Dr. Sundstrom first encountered the Thin Elk/Steamboat winter count as pictographs on muslin cloth on display at the St. Francis Museum. No one seemed to know much about it. After studying other Lakota narrative art in the form of ledger book drawings and winter counts, Dr. Sundstrom decided to try to “read” the pictures. Not only was this possible, it was not difficult. A key to understanding the pictographs is that every element in the picture carries meaning. In other words, a person’s dress, hairstyle, and little symbols that occur nearby all help to tell the story. Later, Dr. Sundstrom discovered that Thin Elk’s own interpretation of the pictures was on file at the museum.She was able to check my interpretations against this older information. T he results of that comparison are the subject of this paper.
Silas Fills the Pipe Winter Count from papers of Fr. Eugene Buechel, S.J. - Transcribed and Translated by Linea Sundstrom
The Silas Fills the Pipe Winter Count was found in Father Buechel’s papers from St. Francis Mission. It covers the years 1762 to 1893. Dr. Sundstrom is not sure when it was collected. The manuscript includes a year, followed by the Lakota year name. An initial translation is given for many of the year names; however, many of these are inaccurate or incomplete. This winter count is essentially the same as the standard Oglala winter count (sometimes referred to as the No Ears cycle), but has a few differences. For example, the year 1833 refers to the killing of Holy Root, and the year 1836 refers to killing many elk cows.
Ring Bull Winter Count from the papers of Fr. Eugene Buechel, S.J. - Transcribed and Translated by Linea Sundstrom
The Ring Bull or Bull Ring Winter Count is another from the papers of Father Buechel at St. Francis Mission. Fr. Buechel labels it in two places as Bull Ring’s and in one place as Ring Bull’s, but does not provide the Lakota version of this person’s name. The winter count goes from 1808-09 to 1919-20. I would guess that it was collected soon thereafter, but this information is not included in Buechel’s notes. This winter count is similar to that of Iron Shell, published in The Sioux by Royal Hassrick. It probably pertains to the Miniconjou or Brule division. This is supported by Buechel’s notation “Rosebud” that appears on the first page. Buechel took the winter count down in Lakota. He later revised that transcription. Some of the year names were difficult for me to translate because of inconsistencies in the transcriptions and difficulty in reading the handwritten manuscripts. I would welcome any suggestions as to these translations!
Saint Alphonsus (Alphausus) Chapel Ledger Book Winter Count - Transcribed and Translated by Linea Sundstrom. This winter count is located in the archive of Oglala Lakota College with the following record number: SC 35 JOURNAL LEDGER: ST. ALPHAUSUS CHAPEL, 1911 and the following note: "Journal ledger which may be a Winter Count. Location of this church is unknown. There are dates with a citation after the date, begins at 1911- 1940." The "St. Alphausus Chapel Journal Ledger Winter Count" is also known as Yellow Hair Winter Count, indeed, a variant of the No Ears Winter Count. It was published by Wilhelm Wildhage in his dissertation, Die Winterszählungen der Oglala (1988, see bibliography), pp. 213-24. He notes that the original Yellow Hair Winter Count was in the Heritage Center archives at Holy Rosary/Red Cloud Indian School.